Peter McGough's Alphabets

by Peter McGough

Limbs akimbo and bodies fold in this queer cyanotype alphabet of nude bodies

For this playful and intimate artist's book, American artist Peter McGough shaped nude male models into sculptural renderings of each letter of the English alphabet, creating 26 lush, deeply queer cyanotype images of their poses. The cyanotype, a slow and cameraless photographic process--and one of the oldest ways of making photos--engages light only in the spectrum of ultraviolet and blue, creating spectral, painterly images that reflect what cannot be perceived by the naked eye. The result is an inky photo transfer, which appears much like a black-and-white image, but on a bluescale.  

56 pages, hardcover
11.25 × 9.25 inches